HADDONFIELD, N.J. (DTN) -- U.S. commercial-sized farms may have binged on debt during the last decade -- investing in everything from pricey farmland to auto-steer farm equipment to jumbo-sized operating lines. But unlike heavily indebted consumers at the peak of the housing bubble, today's credit-intensive farmers are ending their investment streak in the strongest financial position in at least 20 years and maybe even rivaling the 1970s.

The question under debate by economists and farm lenders is whether that stockpile of cash and assets is capable of weathering a prolonged downturn in the farm economy or whether it's 1979 for ...